#237 Jason Flom with Stefon Morant

Since the release of Stefan Morant's story, there have been some exciting new developments. This is a re release of his story with brand new content. In the late eighties and early nineties, Stefan Morant and his best friend Scott Lewis were dealing drugs for local New Haven, Connecticut Kingpinn Frank Perezi, who was about to go to prison on

Thank you.

So let's go back to the beginning. I mean, this is a Connecticut story and the backs are that on October eleventh, nineteen ninety, former New Haven alderman named Ricardo Turner and his lover Lamont Fields, were shot and killed in their bed, and that's where our story starts. So back in nineteen ninety, you were a kid.

You were one about, yes.

And you were you know, you were hustling right, yes, but you weren't killing anybody, absolutely not, and you certainly weren't killing Ricardo Turner and Lamont Fields did. Okay, So how does this start? Because you ended up getting into the crosshairs of a I want to say corrupt detective. I mean corrupt would be too light of a word for this guy, Rauci. I mean you weren't his only victim. There were tons. Yes, He's sort of like a character along the lines of that guy out in Brooklyn who

There was a lot of different what you may call, I guess, organizations, guys selling on different blocks. I was working with Scott and he was getting drugs from this guy by the name of Frank Perisi from out of the Fame Heights area. That's who Detective Rochet used to work for. I think the reason why me and Scott got framed is because Frank was about to go to prison.

So how did this cross your consciousness? When did you first become entangled in it?

As a young man, I was living with my mother at the time.

I happened to call my mother in between seven thirty and eight o'clock, me and a couple all of the guys whatever he was about to go to a script club. So I just just calling her not to tell I was going to script club.

But you just mom, I'm going to strip club.

We're not doing that. So she tells me that someone came by. It was a detective, a couple of them. So she said they wanted me to call, So I was like, I have no problem with calling them, so she gave me the number. It happened to be Detective Rachi, and I think it was the technic was Sweeney at the time, which came in the case later on, and uh, just probably by the reason why I'm sending before you to day because of Detective Sweeney. That's another part of

I said, I did not.

Had you even heard about it in the neighborhood or anything?

No?

I did not.

So this is taking you totally off guard. And you didn't have a lawyer.

No I did not.

Did you read you your rights because you weren't a suspect yet?

Or no, I was a suspect, Like I said. We were at the house drinking and smoking, so we was a little little nice, you know, before going to the script club. Instead of spending all the money in the script club, we just to get high before. So we were in the police precinct for hours at the time. They start threatening me with talking about, oh, you could get the death penalty, we'll put you in the mad

So and Lewis was Scott Lewis?

Correct, Scott Lewis.

Was your friend, my brother, your brother not from another mother, from another Okay, so, and he had not been picked up yet.

No, he wasn't right.

So you're in there by yourself correct. Obviously a scary situation going on, and plus you were already a little impair in the first place. I couldn't have helped, although I imagine this would kill your buzz real quick, yes, but still you didn't have all your wits about you. I mean, listen, I would like to go back in time to that day and shake you by the collar and go, dude, call a lawyer, like, tell them you want a lawyer. That's all you had to do, and the question would

No, I was, we probably got there, Like I said, it was like eight I didn't get out of there until like probably like five six hours later. After they gave me all this information. It was recording me, of course, and it kept stopping the tap. That's not how we want it. Need you to write the statement correctly stopping the tate starting stopping the tap. After they fied me all this information, so I said, I felt in my best interest on.

The way I'm gonna get out of here is to do what they want me to do.

Because the key thing for me was what they said was you, after you write this, you got to come back. So now I see a way out. I didn't see a way out before because they wanted to give me a way out. I was like, listen, I don't know anything about the crime. I need to leave here and let me go, and they was not letting me go, which.

Is actually against the law as well. They had to let you go if you have to be let go, right, I mean, considering they were willing to break so many other rules, they certainly weren't going to abide by that one either. So so you give a statement, yes, which is a statement that they had basically fed you, correct, giving details of the crime that you had no idea about. Correct, but that we're accurate presumably if they fed them to you. Yes,

No, they'd actually let me go.

That's crazy.

They let me.

They told me to come back because I just signed a statement. So my godmother name is Emma Jones. She was a lawyer at the time, and I immediately went to her home. When I got there, it was like three four in the morning, she looked at me and I looked at her and I told her where I was coming from. And she said, you did not say anything right, And I just put my head down and she said, first thing in the morning, we're going to get representation. And my cousin, Detective Pontu was my father's

Okay, So this is a bizarre story in a number of levels. One is that they let you go in the first place, instead of making you sign a statement right after you had falsely confessed that. I've never heard that one before. There must have been some reason for it, but I don't know what it was. By now, this is the next day.

Talking about going back to the police station. It was a couple of days later.

Now by now you knew the details of the crime. You knew this was a double murder, you know, super serious situation, probably getting extra attention because of the fact that one of the dead guys, Ricardo Turner, was a former alderman, right, so there was probably to solve this crime. So now, in these three days that had passed, did you touch base with Scott Lewis? Did you let him know what's going on?

Yes?

I called him actually probably the next day, and I told him about it. So he actually called the police precinct and called the detective himself and went down there and spoke to him. I don't know what the details of the conversation were, but he went down there himself.

So what happens next? How does it progress from here to where you end up getting convicted and serving almost half your life in prison?

Oh?

So what was I doing prior to being convicted m So after leaving the police precinct, I went on with my life. I was I was working. I was working at a piece to place, being a delivery guy. And the detective Rochet, he's like, used to follow me everywhere. I moved back and forth, you know, from North Carolina, South Carolina. I moved back down there with me and my kid's mother. I formally got arrested two years later, so this is nineteen ninety and the crime happened. I

I just felt something.

And then I seen a guy like in a Seville with a newspaper up on his face, like nobody reads a newspaper like that. Something's not right. So anyway, I get out of the car. As soon as I get out of the car, police come from everywhere. It's like a scene out of a movie. My sons was in the back, my name was in the back. I was in the front. I got out the detectives. I was like, they asked me what was my name?

Myself?

Of course my name is Steffa Morandom. But I say, you, guys, I got kids in the car. Case you put your guns down. It was like I was in control of the situation, but I wasn't because they put their guns down. I just told her my name and they were like, oh, you have an arrestaurant for doublehomicide. I'm like, what now, I'm arrested for dumb ohomicide. Like I believe if I would have never came back to Connecticut because what they was doing they was about to take Scott to trial.

Against mister Lewis. And that's just not how you say.

They try to put division between the both of us, and it didn't work. We both ended up, of course, getting convicted. I never testified on them because I'm not testifying to a lie, but I ended up getting arrested that day. Detective Rotch, she was the detective that came him and another detective and picked me up from the Orange Precinct.

I said, hey, come this bull crap again. So he's like, oh, all.

We want you to do is tell us that mister Lewis committed this crime. You could go home, this warrant could go away. I'm like, listen, man, what's my bond? I just need to know my bond, That's all I wanna know. I ended up giving my phone call. I called my mother and she wasn't home, so I called my aunt. Told my aunt about it, and she called my mother let her know, and I was in jail for like a few months, and then my mother she

The whole thing is really surreal. I mean for a lot of reasons, but also because of in particular because of the elapsed time right because I feel like you're listening to you talking about it now, it seems like it was kind of in the tail life. You were going all your life. You're raising your family, trying to make m's meat, doing whatever you can, a little of this, a little legitimate stuff, some other stuff. But you weren't

Yes, I knew of them well when we sold drugs. He used to sell drugs. We used to sell drugs. Yes, we wasn't the best of friends, but I know who he was.

So Ruiz came up with a pretty interesting story. He said that this alderman, the former alderman, Ricardo Turner, was storing drugs and money for Louis, your co defender, for his operation in the second four apartment that he lived in, and that he also owed Lewis money. So, according to Oval, Ruiz I love saying that name over and over again.

But whatever, Well, you know, at the time I'm be going to trial this young kid would a background in mental health issues. My lawyer at the time subpoena in his records, and this guy was talking about he see red bean, he see different visions. He's on halladall and various drugs for his mental health. So he was not only thrown and thrusted and given leniency for given false testimony, but he also was a mental health patient. You know, I don't even understand how the jury believed this guy.

So now they had you, guys, they had this guy that had a false confession. You had no shot at trial, absolutely not. So you go to trial. You tried separately from Lewis.

Yes, I had four counts. First, I have five counts, one count of conspiracy. They dropped that at the beginning of the trial. Two council aid into benin and two concert felony murder.

So when the jury came back in, did you have any hope that they would come to the right answer? He still believed. Yes, even after everything that happened, you still believed the justice were going out.

Of course I did have hope because I didn't do it.

So, okay, so take us to that moment. So the jury comes in and they read the charges in order, right right, So you've already had the one charge dropped. Now you have the first two charges and they go not guilty, right, So after that second not guilty, I'm like, You're like, I'm going home, Yes, I mean, and then they drop a bomb on you.

And then a literal almost fell over. Literally I rocked back. I had to catch myself, and then I looked at the Jerry person. He shook his head like, yeah, we convicted you, and then he read it off again and looked in his eyes again, and then he put his head down.

This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company, and by Accenture, a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Working to reform the criminal justice system is a key pillar of the AIG pro Bono Program, which provides free legal services and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals most in need. As part of Accentsure's commitment to racial and civil justice.

The prosecutor, which is he was just as corrupt as the detective in my eyes, my sons again, they was twins. They were two years old at the time, and I didn't see my sons in a while, you know, so I didn't bring me to court. I didn't even know I was going to court. The prosecutor rise a fruit basket. He puts it on the table, So my mother's there. I didn't know my mother's gonna be there, and my sons are there. So he says to me, missed this.

Possibly, I can't do that. I just can't do that.

Did he actually tell you that he was willing to give you a deal if you would testify against Lewis? Or he would just.

Assume that that's what he told me.

And what was the deal they offered you?

He said we would work it out. He didn't tell me, well, I'm gonna take thirty five. I got seventy years now thirty five years running wild, which means do this thirty five years and start all over again. So what can you offer him? You can't offer me, No, you couldn't. He couldn't have offered me a day because I'm not gonna sit here and lie on the man for something that I didn't do and he didn't do.

It's just not gonna happen.

Then that speaks to your character too, because I think there's you know, no again, no one knows how you would hell anyone would deal with a situation like the one that you were in. But you handled it, I mean with courage, and you know you did the right thing at extreme cost to yourself. So now you're sentenced

Well?

For me, I have a Christian background, right, my grandmother, she just was a faith driven woman. My mother, you know, my father used to take me to church all the time. Actually, the day I got convicted, June eighth, that night when they threw me, told me they reminded me, I was like like a whole building on top of me, like and I didn't know how I was gonna get it off of me. So they put me in a bullpen and there was nobody down there, and I'm looking around and I had a suit on so and the tie.

That was my sanctuary, that was my sanity. That's what brought me through.

Just not my faith alone, but my family was there for me, and they're still there for me. My big brother Frank, my brother Julian, he passed away to Lupis a year before I came home. He was my great to support, my brother le End and my mother Linda, or host the family and friends. I mean, you know, it's crazy in prison because some people don't even know what the visiting room look like. I just had a

You know.

I actually go to school right now, to a Bible institute to become a minister. It's not easy. I go through a lot of ups and downs because of the incarceration. I call it today because of they thrust me into a cage. I'm that dog that's running away from the cage, never to go back to that cage again. I want to go back there, but I want to go back there for the right reasons, as far as if I could inspire and encourage somebody to be like, listen, there

I did the total opposite.

I mean, how did you get out? I mean, these are the things I want to get to here because you were there for twenty years twenty one twenty one years in maximum security. Obviously it's felling the murder.

Yes, I believe that my gud made away, you know. I mean, of course legal things took place, but people came back. Like I mentioned to you earlier to text the Sweeney, he was a great part in this case. He came back after he was in Bosnia in nineteen ninety eight nineteen ninety nine, he happened to see my case.

And this is a supervisor of Detective Rocchi.

That's telling you that the two men that you have in prison, if you're going by the information that was gathered by Detective Rocchi and that informat that you had that testified in these guys, absolutely not I Tective Swing he came to testify to that.

That's so crazy. I'm getting the chills now thinking about it, because here you have a senior official in law enforcement who is coming forward with no motivation. What could his motivation possibly be other than the truth? And they're going, yeah, we're good, like yeah, I mean, he's He's one of the heroes in this.

Story right, without a doubt.

Scott Lewis wrote a letter to the FBI as well about Rachi. They looked into it, and every time they did they would find that things were not as he said they were, but as you guys said they were. They found that Rauchi not only framed you and Lewis, but that he framed a number of other people. I don't think we'll ever know how many, because we know when these guys do it, like Scarcela and Brooklyn, they just keep doing it and doing it and doing it as long as they get away with it, which is

They got involved in Scott case actually two thousand and nine, and Brett moved from she was a law professor at Yale, and then she moved to Columbia. And then they just the students. A lot of the students just went along with her, or she just had some more Columbian students. I'm not really sure of the whole procedure how it went down, but they played a big role in this, getting the conviction overturned.

And finally a good judge who ironically was named hate.

The judge Hate huh with a name but a loving guy.

Yeah, Judge Charles hate the US district Judge Charles hat Junior. Your team want a ruling in front of judge that the prosecution had failed to tell the defense and this is heavy. Get ready that the key witness, ov Ruiz had repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the murders. All of a sudden he had a big memory recall after he was offered a deal. But it's important to recognize

I don't know who it is.

I mean, they have other suspects that D said they have, but I don't know if they pushed forward to try to arrest anybody. I mean, I don't wish nothing bad on anybody, but whether it's one, ind visual, two or three individuals still out there.

So now what about our public exactly?

Let's just say it's not unlikely that whoever was I committed this crime went on to commit other terrible crimes while you guys were serving the time for them. So how did you end up getting out?

Actually, mister Lewis, he was released in February March of twenty fourteen on the bracelet. The judge hate ordered that they release him within the ninety days I think of after the conviction was overturned. Then they had to go to the second Circuit court and then all the charges was dropped. I think he got exonerated in twenty sixteen, if I'm not mistaken. Unlike myself, mister Lewis had a dream team and I had a team that wasn't fighting

What do I do. I'm between a rock and the harbor.

Place do I sit here and say, listen, I want to fight for my name to be clear for another three years. There's nothing guaranteed in the judicial system. They already failed me once, So what do I do. I've always heard that if you can fight better from the outside than the inside. I need to get out. I need to get out of here. So I went with the terms in the agreement. I mean ignorant, of course, of the repercussions of still fighting for my conviction. Because

He's exonerated. I'm struggling. You know, what do you do?

You know I got to survive, though, you know, I'm thankful that I'm able to be able to stand on my two feet. I'm able to go to a job and to go and make a difference. I don't know if you know, but I work at a halfway house. You know, it's a part of the frictional facility. Like my grandmother was a caregiver. So I guess I'm following the footsteps of her. I also just took on another job working with the mental health I work at health for healthcare.

Now.

It's not a lot of money, but it's getting me and my wife by me and my lawyer. Right now, we're trying to put together a pardon to try to see if that the state of Connecticut will pardon me and use circumstances because I can't get jobs. It's pay as well, because I have a conviction of my record. You know, I'm actually like getting half the pay, you know, for somebody didn't do and I'm still suffering.

Sometimes I'd be like, yo, why, But then at the end of the day, why not.

I'm not the first person that happened to them, won't be the last person that happens too.

So, Stefan, last time we spoke, you were still fighting for your innecens to be recognized. You were out here struggling to get by on what jobs you could get with that murder conviction hanging over your head until you

A bunch of bricks? Everything just fell off my shoulders. It was like, I'm free, you know. It was like for a long time, I've been accused of something that I did not do, and now it felt like our release. You know, I'm free. I mean, I'm finally free. Words can't even sum it up right now. I'm ready to just to tear up. I think I was telling you earlier this year that they called me in for Jerry duty.

Wait, so they called you? Imagine that rashly minted Axonnerie, right, Jerry, they called you for Jerry duty. Than really kind of poetic about that.

The same court that convicted me was calling me on for jury duty. It didn't pick me for the jury, but they called me in for jury duty. I felt, I felt honored, I felt like a human being. I felt a sense of release, even though I probably couldn't serve in the jury because I was still a convicted felon at the time, but it would just an honor for the jury pool to even call me.

Yeah, I can't imagine. And let's face it, most people do everything they can to avoid jury duty, which I'm going to talk directly to our audience here. Please take what you've learned here and serve on a jury every chance you get. Okay, it is an honor and it is a duty, and it is an opportunity for each of us to help prevent what happened to step On and to every other one of the axguneries that we've

Well, um fortunate and it's been blessed that me and my wife, Kimberly Moran purchased a home. Great woman, she's my angel, she is a rid died She's somebody that I hold at a high regard. That man, I'm getting tongue twisted right now to stinking who would do that? I mean, who would just come into somebody's life and just believe in the innocence. She believed in me. She believed that I was innocent. Other than that, she says, she would never have stayed. She became my wife in

And just knowing that.

I wasn't here for my children, but thank God, I'm here for my grandchildren. Hope that we could develop a relationship that a man, It's hard because they have a life. We have a life. Hopefully it gets better. I want to be there more because the relationship is not what it should be. I mean, my children tell me every time they thought that it would be different, they thought

To me again.

Yeah, it's crazy, step On, and it's powerful to hear you say it, But you're not the first guy I've heard say that or something like it. I mean, some guys will say that they will get receipts anywhere they can, every time they can get a receipt for pack of gum anything.

I just looked at my drawer. My drawers full uped me everywhere I go. You want to receive. Yeah, I need that timestep absolutely location. Like on my phone, I put, yeah, do you want people to know you?

Yeah?

Location, And that's sad because you want a private life, but you can't have a private life because you're afraid that something like this can happen to you again.

Yeah, I mean that is a sad part of reality. And you know, it's a continuing toll of the damage that they did. But I got to say, everyone on the Wrongful Conviction team is really like, so so happy for you now and with your new clean record, I guess all I could say is, may your reputation never be smeared and impugned again. And now we come to my favorite part of the show, which of course is

For me, arguments would be that to recognize my mother been there from the beginning, it's still there now, my little brother Leander, my big brother Frank, my wife of course, my mother in law, father in law, my children I named them earlier, for us to just have a better relationship and building on this. I mean, this has caused so much grief and so much pain in my life,

I just just pray that.

This happened for me, and I hope that everybody that's unjustly incarcerated to get their day in court, that they're able to come and do the same thing I'm doing right now with this podcast and this story amongst the.

World, that.

This is the day that the Lord has made and let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad that they're in. That's one of my favorite sayings. And I'm so grateful to God that I know that that's the only reason why I stand before you today and I sit here and I'm able to be here. And again, thank you to Jason Flam and thank you to Connor for allowing me just to be here, just to share the story and hope that it can help somebody see something or hear something, or some people just do the right thing.

And with that, I say, I have a blessed day. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden, Jeff Cliburn, and Kevin Wardis. With research by Lyla Robinson. The music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram. At Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava